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Saturday, June 6, 2009

On to the Next Lake

Now that I'm not looking for work for a bit, I've just been biking,and reached Buffalo, on the shores of Lake Erie, yesterday.Unfortunately, it looks like the beautiful weather is over for awhile, and I'll be hitting rain and storms, and, due to the lowpopulation density, likely camping in them. I don't expect theupcoming few days to be very pleasant.

Although I found a place to stay in Rochester and now in Buffalo, Ihaven't been able to get access to a computer, and likely won't for awhile. Thus, no updates to the map, and no photos on the blog.

I was planning to write about what a boon for the traveler a gasstation is, what with cheap food, water for my bottles, bathrooms,plugs to charge my phone, etc.

But I encountered another boon as I walked toward Batavia. As I gowest, the hills get smaller and I get stronger, the result being thatI don't need to get off the bike at all. This becomes, quiteliterally, a pain in the ass. To mitigate that, I've been getting offand walking a bit every now and then.

"You look like you're coming from a distance!" I suddenly heard. Ihadn't even realized I was passing a house. I walked over to the manand we talked for a bit, starting with bikes and ending with the USConstitution. His name was Bob.

"Would you like to come in for some sandwiches?"

"If you're offering, I'm taking."

We went inside. "It's a good thing my wife isn't home. She's skepticalof strangers. She was robbed once."

I made myself one sandwich. I didn't want to overeat while stillbiking. He had me make another and pack it for the road. I refilled mywater bottles.

Miles later, in Corfu, I saw a woman on a porch and asked if she'dmind if I sat with her and ate my sandwich. She asked the usualquestions and told me about the new basketball hoop she got.

I got to Buffalo and met Mel, who took me out to dinner at an Indianrestaurant, and at whose place I'm comfortably staying right now.

But gas stations are far more dependable, and they let me retain myindependence.

Who am I?

Born in Russia, I was imported to the United States by the time I was 6, and grew up in Massachusetts. I graduated from Cornell University in 2005 with a degree in astrophysics, and have since worked in astrophysics and cognitive neuropsychology, and have run a few small (read: tiny) businesses. I have lots of hobbies, a big one being social experiments. I've always been jealous of those people in stories who drift from place to place finding work, and have decided my next step will be to set up and run an experiment to see how well that would work in modern reality.